Sacred Heart Church, the “little church with the big heart,” in the Ulster County town of Esopus, celebrated its 150^th anniversary on Saturday, June 21, with an outdoor Mass presided over by Archdiocese of New York Auxiliary Bishop Gerardo J. Colacicco.

The festivities were tempered by the announcement that the Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which marked its own 150^th anniversary in 2024, will close in September. The two parishes were merged in 2015.

The 4 p.m. vigil Mass was held outdoors on the first full day of summer at the Our Lady of the Hudson Shrine, which stands on the Church of the Presentation site and overlooks the Hudson River.

“It certainly is the first day of summer,” Bishop Colacicco said to begin his homily. “I think the Lord gave us this weather so I would not preach too long,” he said.

Referring to the day’s gospel, the story of the Feeding of the Multitude, also known as the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes, Bishop Colacicco recalled that as a boy, a sign hung in his mother’s kitchen that read, “Five loaves and two fishes is never enough until you give it away.” “The Lord loves us so much that He gives us Himself,” the bishop said. “He comes to us because He desires to remain within us.

At the end of Mass, Father Rojas thanked Bishop Colacicco for attending and acting as principal celebrant. “I am grateful to look back and to look ahead, trusting in the Holy Spirit, and thankful for Almighty God for participating in this 150-year stream. Perhaps not as broad as the Hudson River next to us, but God willing, more life-giving, more life-orienting, here in this beautiful Hudson Valley.”

Bishop Colacicco then announced that Cardinal Timothy Dolan had appointed Father Rojas as pastor of the Parish of St. Mary-St. Peter in nearby Kingston, while continuing at Presentation-Sacred Heart. “The buildings are showing an awful lot of wear and age, beyond our ability to repair, so some difficult decisions must be made about Presentation,” he said. “You will remain a parish family with worship sites at Sacred Heart in Esopus and St. Mary’s in Kingston. It will most likely be September 1 that we have to close here at Presentation,” the bishop said.

“It’s remarkable,” Bishop Colacicco said of any parish’s ability to last for 150 years, in an interview with The Good Newsroom. “It’s important to think about how many baptisms, how many first communions, how many weddings, how many funerals [took place]. The number of folks that were nourished by the sacraments, the number of folks that were ushered into Heaven, the number of folks who came to know Jesus,” he said.

Father Rojas talked to The Good Newsroom about the future. “We keep the parish going strong by now covering both sides of the Rondout Creek [which separates Port Ewen and Kingston]. Formerly the south, now the north, we now truly span being urban as well as rural, Spanish as well as English,” he said, noting that both English and Spanish Masses are celebrated in the parishes.

“We are asking for everyone to understand that the only good future is shared. All communities have to share, to give, and to take, but united in the same Catholic church,” Father Rojas said.

The Mass was followed by a celebratory dinner at Sacred Heart Church, attended by Bishop Colacicco, Father Rojas, Deacon Timothy Dean, and about 50 parishioners.